


Flowers for Gods

by Santana2



Category: Naruto
Genre: Alternate Universe - Greek Mythology, M/M, Percy Jackson influence, That one prompt about Hades and Persephone
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-10-27
Updated: 2016-10-27
Packaged: 2018-08-27 06:33:11
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,552
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8390911
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Santana2/pseuds/Santana2
Summary: It is a well-known rule that if you need something from the god of the underworld, it is always better to pay the temperamental god a visit in the winter months when his husband, the god of spring, is there.Or, the one where Sakura, Naruto, and Sasuke want to go on a quest to the underworld in the spring and Iruka is more than happy help.





	

A/N: To whomever offered the prompt about KakaIru and the Greek myth about Hades and Persephone, here’s to you. I saw it a while back and i loved it so much it stuck with me, so I have to do something about it.

Some props to the _Percy Jackson_ series for giving me the basis for this, but I’m not calling it a crossover, because reference to the books was minimal and I’m pretty sure my muse ran off on its own after a while here.

* * *

It is a well-known rule that if you need something from the god of the underworld, it is always better to pay the temperamental god a visit in the winter months. That’s when his husband, the god of spring, is there by his side. This way, if you happen to piss the god of death off, you have the much more forgiving god of spring there to hopefully be in your corner and a _slightly_ better chance of getting out alive.

Unfortunately, when your friend was a healer and they desperately needed the _very rare_ ingredient that could only be found in the depths of the underworld and it was the middle of spring, things got a little more complicated.

Naruto was finding this out the hard way as he, Sakura, and Sasuke made their way into the realm of Iruka.

“Just don’t step on, or crush anything,” Naruto told the other two, gingerly picking his way through the magnificent garden that served as home to his favorite god, “He hates that. I mean, he’ll probably still help us, but we’ll get a lecture.”

Sakura was staring around in awe at the multitude of colorful flowers, fruit trees, and berry bushes, “It’s _gorgeous_.”

“And has a ton of fruit,” Sasuke said from the back of the group in mild annoyance, “Why can’t you get your pomegranate here, Sakura?”

 _“It doesn’t quite work that way, child,”_ The voice that answered Sasuke didn’t belong to any of the three but came on a warm breeze from behind them.

They turned, surprised to see the god of spring right behind them, sitting on the branch of a pear tree they’d just passed under. Iruka smiled, glowing otherworldly even in the shade of the tree, typical pony-tail swinging in the breeze. His soft leaf-green yukata rustled as he slid down, feet making no noise in the grass where he landed.

“Iruka!” Naruto cheered and ran to him.

He heard Sasuke and Sakura make a noise of protest behind him but he threw his arms around the god’s chest anyway, feeling the laughter like a babbling brook there when he connected. Fingers carded through his hair as another arm went around his back to squeeze minutely before Naruto pulled back.

“How are you, little one?” Iruka asked as Naruto (who was really not so little anymore) gave him a more respectful bow, the god’s voice sounding more normal now.

Naruto straightened, “I’m good. Really good . . . Ah, actually, um . . .” he trailed off, suddenly feeling a little awkward, asking a favor like this.

Sasuke nudged him, but Iruka shook his head, “It’s alright, Naruto, I gathered you’re not here just to say hello.”

“Ah, no,” Naruto laughed and scratched the back of his head awkwardly, “Actually, we kind of need some help with, er . . .” How to say it nicely?

“You need passage to the underworld,” Iruka finished for him, rich brown eyes shining as if he were teasing, “You need a favor from Kakashi.”

Sakura stepped forward and gave her own little bow and saying, “Yes, my lord. We only need a pomegranate from his garden – “

“Unless you have one just lying around?” Naruto interjected hopefully, Sakura shooting him a glare, either at being interrupted or his general irreverence, he didn’t know.

Iruka smiled softly, though, not taking offence, “I do, but as I said, if you need something grown in the underworld, something from my garden here won’t work.” The god moved past them as he spoke, down the path of the little meadow they were in, toward the tree line that looked like another orchard. 

“Well, that’s fine,” Naruto said, following Iruka down the overgrown path, “But about that whole ‘safe passage to the underworld’ thing – “

“I do not believe I said ‘ _safe_ passage’,” Iruka cut in with an oddly wicked smirk.

“Oh, no, you didn’t,” Naruto murmured and Iruka chuckled. The blonde shook his head and went on more clearly, “But you do have a way to help us out?”

“Of course,” Iruka said distractedly as they ducked under the limbs of the fig orchard. He seemed to be looking for something, murmuring under his breath, “Now where did I . . .”

Naruto and Sakura glanced at Sasuke and he nodded, unshouldering his bag and rummaging through the contents, whispering to Naruto, “Are you sure about this?”

“Yeah, yeah, just hand it over,” Naruto whispered back at the same time Sakura said to the god’s back, “We brought you an offering in exchange for your help.”

Iruka finally turned with a raised eyebrow, “Well, that wasn’t necessary.”

“That’s what I told them,” Naruto grouched, handing the package to Sakura, “But she insisted – “

“It’s tradition,” Sakura hissed, “Try to be a _little_ respectful.” Sakura put a grin on her face before turning back to an increasingly amused god of spring and holding out the package for him to take.

Iruka took it without comment on the way the girl’s fingers seemed to shake from nerves. When he unwrapped it he barked a laugh loud enough to send several nearby birds fluttering.

He held it up for the three of them, “Ichiraku’s instant ramen?”

Sakura and Sasuke went still, looking nervous as Naruto said, “I thought that was your favorite?”

Iruka rolled his eyes, “It is, you’re just ridiculous, child.” Nevertheless, he slipped the ramen packs into his yukata and gave Sakura a little bow of his own, “Thank you, dear, it was very thoughtful of you.”

When Iruka turned back down the path to walk to the deeper part of the orchard, Sakura looked at Naruto smugly. Sasuke shouldered his pack with a long-suffering sigh and went first after the god.

Up ahead, they heard Iruka’s voice, “Here we are.”

Sakura and Naruto hurried to catch up. Sasuke stood watching Iruka bend over a large tangle of vines. As they got closer, they could see Iruka cup part of a stem in his hands, looking down at it with an affectionate expression as if it were a small kitten he’d found.

Sakura and Naruto stopped beside Sasuke and watched, listening to the god of spring say almost inaudibly, “It’s a bit early for you, yet. But today I’ll make an exception.”

The three mortals took a small step back when the vine in Iruka’s hand began to glow with the same otherworldly light as his skin, soft gold in the shadow of the orchard. Leaves rustled as the breeze picked up and the birds in the trees seemed to sing a little louder but not as if alarmed.

Several buds formed on the vine, the leaves seemed to stretch. The buds grew until petals were visible, quickly spiraling and unfurling to reveal a deep navy trumpet-like flower, petals like velvet and bright yellow in the center. If Naruto looked directly down the trumpet, the yellow resembled a star on a moonless night.

Iruka smiled as if to himself, picked three blooms separately, and stood to face the other three.

“Those are lovely,” Sakura said softly, as Iruka inspected the blossoms in his hand.

“But how do they help us?” Sasuke, ever the realist, asked.

“Do we eat them and they give us super-powers?” Naruto asked excitedly.

Iruka finally glanced up, meeting Naruto’s eye with a _look._  

“If you eat them, you _will_ meet my husband, but not in the way you want,” Iruka said carefully and Naruto cringed. Iruka shook his head with a small smile, continuing, “I can’t offer you much by way of protection in getting through the underworld. My husband is . . . not fond of visitors. But if you do manage to make it to my husband’s palace, give him these,” he passed them each a flower, “And tell him they are from me. A sign of my . . . sponsorship, I suppose.”

“Why these?” Sasuke asked skeptically, eyeing the flower in his hand.

The god of spring’s face softened into a far-away smile, hand going to the scar across his nose to trace it the way he did when he was thinking, “He’ll know.”

The three decided to leave it at that.

They thanked him again, Naruto promising to visit when there wasn’t a quest on the line, and began their trek back out of the garden. Along the way, Iruka shouted after them, “And say hello to the hounds for me!”

* * *

Getting to the gates of the underworld was a fairly simple task.

Getting _into_ the underworld was not.

Getting to the king of the underworld’s palace was damn near impossible, and stupid, and Naruto was never doing this again, and _how could Iruka live down here for a third of the year_?

Nevertheless, they made it, alive and in relatively one piece. (Sasuke was missing a clump of hair, but Naruto couldn’t remember when that happened.)

“Okay,” Naruto gasped out, flat on his back in the courtyard leading to the massive front door of Kakashi’s home, “We’re here. What now?”

Sasuke, sitting back on his hands next to him, shrugged with a wince, “We knock?”

Sakura was the first to nod and stand, attempting to brush some of the grime off her clothes to no avail. She shrugged and rolled her shoulders, marching up to the doors as the boys clambered up and followed.

Sakura glanced back at them while she gathered her courage, then back to the intimidating carved, black doors of the palace. Naruto tried not to look too hard at the way the carvings seemed to depict every form of death imaginable.

Finally, Sakura swallowed, reaching up to the black iron knocker. Her hand looked too small and fragile against and she had to use both arms to raise it and knock thrice.

When she was done she stepped back and for a while nothing happened. Sakura glanced back at them again when minutes passed and there was only silence, “Should I try again?”

“Or we could just walk in,” Naruto said tiredly, getting fed up with the whole god-quest-runaround. Stepping past Sakura, he grabbed the handle made of the same cold iron as the knocker and pulled with all his might. Sasuke had to join in, helping him scrape the door open about a foot before they both had to stop.

Sasuke peered through the crack they’d made first and waved the other two in after him. Inside was somehow colder than the courtyard they’d just left, surrounded now on all sides by black stone walls, and tapestries depicting what looked like war. Some human, others not. They were in a long dark corridor that turned pitch black where the light from the entry couldn’t reach.

Naruto could see his breath when he asked, “Do you think he’s not home?” The last word was barely out of his mouth when something large and invisible slammed hard into his side, knocking him to the floor.

The wind was knocked out of him, but Naruto could hear Sakura shout and fabric tear, somewhere Sasuke said, “Shit, it’s the hounds!”

Hounds.

Naruto twisted onto his back just as the swirling gray smoke above him began to coalesce into the shape of a large, snarling black dog, complete with spiked collar and drool dripping down its jaws in ribbons.

Naruto gathered what little breath he had and squeaked out, “Iruka says ‘hi’.”

The growling stopped abruptly. The dog pinning him down blinked and let its lips fall back over its teeth as it tilted its head to the side like a puppy. There was a small _crack_ like flint hitting flint and the whole corridor lit up from torches on the wall emitting an eerie blue flame.

“Iruka?” Another voice asked, from a source Naruto couldn’t see beyond the massive animal on top of him, “Oh, well, why didn’t you say so?”

The giant dog hopped off Naruto with no further question and when the blonde sat up, he saw Sakura and Sasuke huddled in a corner staring down at a much smaller hound. There were more, a whole pack but Naruto couldn’t see the person that spoke.

“I didn’t know they could talk,” Sakura whispered in disbelief, still staring at the littlest hound.

“Yeah, that always gets left out,” The tiny hell-hound grumbled as he clambered back up onto the larger one’s head, “But you say Iruka sent you?”

A beat passed so the three mortals could glance at each other skeptically before Sasuke said, “More like sponsoring.”

The pug-like hound seemed to think on that for a moment. Then he shrugged his little doggy shoulders, “Hm, sure, I guess that’ll do. You got any proof?”

Sakura hurriedly scrambled for her pocket where she kept the flower Iruka had given them, “Y-yes, here.”

She took out the flower and it was like a small warm breeze drifted into the freezing palace. For a moment they could smell spring. Sakura tentatively held out the flower, which had miraculously not wilted or been crushed during the journey (Naruto suspected Iruka had something to do with that), and one of the other members of the pack trotted up to sniff it. The whiskered dog turned back to the pug and nodded, “It’s from Iruka, all right.”

“Great,” the pug scratched his ear with a back paw, “Follow us. Boss is this way.” The pack surrounded them and Naruto, Sakura, and Sasuke clustered together in the middle and had no choice but be ushered along down the long corridor.

The torches were the only source of light as there were no windows, not that there was any natural sunlight in the underworld to begin with. The longer they walked the colder it got and the three mortals huddled together for warmth.

The hounds stopped when the corridor did, at another large door, just as intimidating as the last, only smaller.

“Wait here,” the pug said and hopped off the bigger hound’s head when the latter had pulled the door open by the handle using its enormous jaws. The pug trotted inside the new door and it slammed closed behind him, the sound echoing loudly down the empty corridor. Naruto felt Sakura and Sasuke shrink a little closer as he did the same.

After a few more minutes of silence, the door creaked again, swinging slowly out on hinges as if of its own accord.

“You can go ahead,” one of the other dogs said, its sunglasses glinting in the blue torch-light, “But don’t’ get yourselves killed by being annoying, or _we_ gotta hear about it for the next millennia.”

The three of them just nodded dumbly, watching the dogs disappear in swirls of gray smoke.

Naruto stepped up first, although much of his impatient bravado from before had left him. Sasuke followed him inside and finally Sakura, the three of them pausing just within. The room looked empty aside from a long, elegantly carved table with several blue-lit candles and scattered parchment on top. There was a fireplace that could have comfortably fit a party of thirty on the other side of the room, burning the same blue fire as the torches in the corridor.

“Where is he?” Sakura whispered but it sounded painfully loud in the silence.

As if in answer, a cold gust of air passed through the room, stealing their breath away at its suddenness and Naruto had to shut his eyes against it. When he opened them, he saw they had finally been joined by the god of death.

Kakashi sat at one end of the long table, black yukata all but blending with the shadows around it, pale skin and hair standing in stark contrast to it all even without the ethereal glow all gods seemed to have. He sat at the table as if he’d been there from the beginning, one red and one gray eye staring down at the parchment in obvious boredom, masked chin resting on the knuckles of one hand.

“Showoff,” Naruto muttered and got an elbow in the side from Sasuke for his trouble.

“What do you want?” A bored voice asked in monotone and the three mortals looked up at the god who had spoken. Naruto and Sasuke looked at Sakura because this was _her idea_ and all.

She nodded, squared her shoulders and stepped forward, gave a little bow, and began, “I came to ask for one of the pomegranates in your garden, my lord. You see I’m a healer and – “

“It’s okay, you answered the question,” the god of the dead stopped her abruptly with an annoyed wave of his hand but without looking up, “I don’t need a life story. I mean, I’ll get it eventually, ‘cause . . . you know,” he waved a bored hand as if to the palace in general, “But I prefer to save that till the end.”

“I – okay, apologies,” Sakura said uncertainly, wringing her hands, “So, you’ll help us?”

“Nope,” Kakashi flipped a piece of parchment over dismissively, “Sorry you wasted the trip.”

Naruto felt his face get hot and opened his mouth to yell at this asshole, but a hand on his shoulder stopped him. He turned to see Sasuke shake his head minutely, the other stepping forward and reaching into his pocket, saying, “Iruka said you would help. He’s the one sponsoring us.”

Naruto and Sakura glanced at each other, because that first part wasn’t technically true, but they kept their mouths shut.

Mismatched eyes that had been scanning parchment looked up for the first time since they’d walked in, “ . . . Iruka?”

Sasuke pulled the navy bloom from his pocket and again they were hit with the smell of spring and sky and warmth. When Sakura and Naruto hurried to hold up their own flowers it tripled and for a moment the cold, sparse room was as full and fragrant as Iruka’s garden.

Kakashi’s head came up with actual interest now, eyes locked on the little flowers still intense but easing somehow. He stood from his chair in one smooth motion and Naruto wanted to shrink back at the sudden height and presence of an elder god, but held his ground as Kakashi came closer, like a ghost floating over the stone floor.

Kakashi came to a stop in front of Sasuke, face never changing, and slowly held out one long pale hand. Blinking, Sasuke glanced at the hand, then the flower. Getting the idea, he carefully placed the flower in the god’s hand, beckoning to Naruto and Sakura to do the same. They did, albeit cautiously, and stood back in a line to await judgement.

The god of death stared down at the three blooms in his hand for a moment with an oddly contemplative look and Naruto wondered if this was enough to sway him.

Then Kakashi wrapped his fingers around the stems and turned away from them, gliding back to the table as if in a haze. The group of three looked at each other and Sakura stepped forward again, “Uh, my lord?”

“Hm?” Kakashi turned back to blink at them in surprise, almost like he’d forgotten they were there, “Oh, you’re still here?”

“Yes . . . about the pomegranate?” Sakura asked uncertainly as the god of the underworld wondered dreamily to the table, “From your garden?”

Kakashi made a humming sound low in his throat, like he was too distracted to really care what Sakura was saying. They watched his hand not holding the flowers sweep up over the table-top, black smoke curling around his fingers eventually collecting itself into a small, concentrated whirlwind. The smoke solidified into a vase that looked as if it had been cut from diamond, glittering blue in the candle-light.

Kakashi set the flower in it, a little bouquet. He reached up one last time to touch the velvety texture of one of the trumpets before pulling his hand away with a sigh. Stepping back from the table he turned to the three mortals watching him silently . . . and the god’s eyes crinkled into a smile as he said cheerfully, “This way.”

Sakura glanced at both Naruto and Sasuke in bewilderment as Kakashi started walking, before all three hurried after him. A door suddenly appeared out of black smoke on one side of the room, which the elder god walked through without hesitation.

Naruto expected to see more dark corridors beyond but he was surprised when his feet hit grass on the other side.

“Oh!” Sakura exclaimed and when Naruto looked up he saw why.

Kakashi had his back to them, still gliding along at an easy pace, through a garden unlike any Naruto had ever seen. Pomegranate trees grew everywhere, in no particular order, interspersed with some of the strangest plants he’d ever seen and many he noted were, in fact, poisonous. The fact that they were underground and in an almost constant state of night made the whole place a dark forest. It wasn’t Iruka’s garden with its bright colors and myriad of flowers, but it was . . . bizarrely beautiful in a similar way.

Naruto figured Iruka had something to do with that, although it was hard for him to picture the cheerful god in this place.

Until he noticed the pinpricks of yellow he saw in between the fruit trees were in fact hundreds of thousands of the same navy flower Iruka had given them, their bright yellow centers shining somehow in the darkness with their own light, like stars.

Kakashi stopped at the first tree they came to, reached up after a little inspection, and plucked a ripe pomegranate from it. He handed it to Sakura with another smile that they only saw because of his eyes and she took it with another deep bow and a shaky, “Thank you, sir.”

Sasuke smacked Naruto in the back and the blonde jumped before catching on and the two boys bowed as well.

“Sure, sure,” Kakashi said disinterestedly, studying them with a critical eye, “Although, my husband probably deserves more of your thanks. He knows I hate visitors, and _yet_ ,” he shook his head with a sigh, “Such a pushover sometimes.” But Naruto couldn’t tell if the god was talking about Iruka or himself.

“Now, if you don’t mind,” Kakashi said, his smile turning into something sarcastic, “Get out of my realm.”

* * *

Iruka was sunning himself in the tall wildflowers of his little meadow when a shadow fell over him and an annoyed voice said, “They’re fine, by the way.”

Brown eyes blinked opened to meet red and gray, and Iruka’s face split into a smile at his husband’s grouchy face, “I hope you weren’t too hard on them.”

“Tch,” Kakashi slid to his knees as Iruka sat up, hair falling loose around his shoulders the way he knew the other loved, “I should have made them walk back the way they came. Instead, I let the dogs lead them out.”

“Oh, you’re getting soft,” Iruka teased and lifted one knee over Kakashi’s legs to sit in his lap, arms slipping around the elder god’s shoulders, “But thank you for helping them.”

“Are you going to favor every little hero that runs to you asking your big, bad husband for favors?” Kakashi asked even as he slid one arm around Iruka’s waist, the other into his hair.

“If it means you’ll come visit me up here more?” Iruka asked playfully, “Yes.”

Kakashi smiled as Iruka reached back around to pull his mask down, the younger god’s thumb tracing the outline of his lips. Kakashi reached up to hold his wrist and kissed it, saying against the softly glowing skin there, “You could have just summoned me without sending a bunch of brats to get your message across.”

“They had a quest,” Iruka carded his other hand through wild white hair and kissed Kakashi’s temple, “And you need a little company now and then when I can’t be there.”

Kakashi wrapped his arms around Iruka’s middle, pulling him close, and burying his face in the hollow of the spring god’s neck. He breathed in the earthy smell of flowers and fruit before sighing, “I so miss you, love.”

“I miss you, too,” Iruka answered immediately, nose and mouth pressed into Kakashi’s hair, hands drawing circles in his shoulders and back, “But summer will end before you know it and I’ll be back home.”

Iruka felt Kakashi press a kiss to his collarbone. Then the world spun and Iruka cried out in surprise as Kakashi flipped them. Suddenly on his back, Iruka laughed, Kakashi hovering over him with a soft smile. Iruka reached up to cup his face, arching off the ground for a kiss.

Kakashi’s arm supported them off the ground as the Iruka's arms wrapped around the elder god’s neck. Iruka felt Kakashi’s hand slip under his yukata and up his thigh, his own slipping under the other’s collar to find more skin. They kissed slowly, lazy as a spring evening.

Then a warm breeze swept over them and with it came the sound of a familiar voice.

“Iruka?” Naruto called from the trees, two other sets of footsteps following his.

Kakashi pulled back from the kiss reluctantly, still holding Iruka to his chest, “I don’t think I like these kids, Iruka.”

Iruka laughed and kissed him once more before untangling himself and standing, “They’re special, Kakashi, I promise.” He reached up and held Kakashi’s face once more when the other was on his feet as well, “And you’ve got all eternity to steal me away for yourself.”

Kakashi hummed in contentment, putting a hand over Iruka’s and kissing his palm, “I’ll come back after they're gone.”

“Promise?” Iruka asked coyly, shrugging a little so his yukata fell off his shoulder.

“Minx,” Kakashi bent to kiss his husband one last time before the kids appeared over the hill. He disappeared in a cloud of black smoke before his lips ever left Iruka’s but the latter couldn’t even be mad as he quickly fixed his clothes.

Naruto spotted him first, coming over the hill looking a little worse for the wear, grouching, “Iruka! How the _hell_ are you married to that guy? He’s a creep!”

Iruka chuckled when Sakura and Sasuke both smacked the blonde, the two saying something about respect, but his attention drifted to the tree line of the fig orchard where Kakashi stood just out of mortal sight in its shade.

“Because I love him,” Iruka murmured too low for the others to hear. A cool breeze that felt out of place in his spring garden but ever so comforting blew from the orchard and wrapped around him.

_I love you, too._

* * *

A/N: ~~I apologize for being a smut tease~~. I have more head-canons involving this prompt (which I’m excited about because I’ve been in a bit of a KakaIru slump lately *shrug*) but this was the one that was most persistent in my headspace, so here you go, I hope you like :)


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